Amnesty International claims cops paid for killing drug suspects

February 1, 2017

An international human rights group claims police get incentives for killing suspects during anti-illegal drug operations.

In a report, Amnesty International said “the police killings are driven from the top, including an order to neutralize allege drug offenders, as well as financial incentives they have created an informal economy of death.”

“Speaking to Amnesty International, a police officer with the rank of Senior Police Officer 1, who has served in the force for a decade and conducts operations as part of an anti-illegal drugs unit in Metro Manila, describe how the police are paid per encounter the term used to falsely present extrajudicial execution as legitimate operation,” Wilnor Papa of Amnesty International told reporters, citing their report in a press conference Wednesday.

“We always get paid by encounter… The amount ranges from 8,000 pesos to 15,000 pesos…. That amount is per head,” said Papa, quoting the report.

“So if the operation is against four people, that’s 32,000 pesos… we’re paid in cash, secretly, by headquarters… there’s no incentive for arresting. We’re not paid anything,” the report added.

Papa, quoting the report citing the police officer, said :“It never happens that there’s a shootout and no one is killed.”

He also mentioned  the police officer said some policemen  established “a racket with funeral homes, who reward them for each dead body sent there.”

Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Ronald Dela Rosa said Amnesty International should show their police source and file a complaint before the Ombudsman.

“I don’t know who pays… me I don’t… but if it is true… they should show that person in the open, for all you know it is just another humiliation to the Duterte administration,” Dela Rosa said.

“File a complaint, show that people and bring him to the ombudsman to clear everything… it is difficult saying according to, according to, the PNP do not have funding for that, to pay the police who killed, why do you have to pay…” he added.

In a statement, the PNP said the organization “take strong exception to opinions raised in the latest report of Amnesty International which claims that police plant evidence, take under-the-table cash, fabricate reports, and paid killers on police payroll.”

“These are obviously not the norm, despite a higher number of police operations that have resulted to inevitable fatal encounters with criminal elements lately,” the PNP stated.

The statement said “the police cannot help being typecast as alleged violators of human rights partly because of the basic nature of its law enforcement function that constantly places him in cross swords engagement or armed contact with criminal elements.”

The PNP said  “that of the 4,744 murders under investigation that both local and foreign observers wrongfully refer to as ‘extra-judicial-killing’, 3,459 were determined to be non-drug-related incidents 662 of which were motivated by personal grudge.”

“Fifteen were related to property dispute, 16 were crimes of passion, 10 were “rido” or family feud, 11 were work-related and 2 were atrocities committed by threat groups. On the other hand, only 1,285 incidents had something to do with the victim’s association with drug activities,” it added.

“We have made significant breakthrough in the investigation of these murders with the arrest of 694 suspects and the identification of 467 others who are believed responsible in 1,212 reported deaths. Criminal charges have been filed before the courts,” it said. Robina Asido/DMS